Lord of the Rings TV Series Purchased by Amazon

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I’m kinda stunned at the number of self-reports in a thread about a fantasy show.

It’s rather par for the course, id actually be surprised if a fantasy adaptation didn’t have racist jumping out of the wood works at this point.

[niztheundead87]

> find a franchise with an established fanbase
> change men to women chars ( where woman char is a mary sue)
> add token poc
> shit on the fanbase and attack them when they complain
> said movie flops , blame it on the fanbase with all the -ist and -phobic words

[Rennadrel]

Shitter exploded today when it revealed that Amazon wokefied it.

Pretty much as predicted. Look at how much they ass fucked The Wheel of Time and then ramp it up ten fold. This show is gonna be a huge disservice to Tolkien's universe on so many levels. Also, the showrunners are literal who's, people who have NEVER produced a show in their lives. It's gonna be shit on every level and it will get canned. Even though they are contractually obligated to produce 5 seasons, this will be so bad that they will have to just pony up the money to the Tolkien estate for whatever they don't produce, or can the staff and find someone who actually gives a shit about it after the first season.

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> find a franchise with an established fanbase
> change men to women chars ( where woman char is a mary sue)
> add token poc
> shit on the fanbase and attack them when they complain
> said movie flops , blame it on the fanbase with all the -ist and -phobic words

Ahh, I see I'm not the only one here who likes Scotland's best film critic. Drinker has some great takes, and he is bang on with that one.

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I’m kinda stunned at the number of self-reports in a thread about a fantasy show.

Don't question just consoom product and get excited for next product.

People like you being apologists for garbage and mediocrity are why these things wind up being bad. Maybe creators should stop using POC and Mary Sue characters as a crutch for their inability to write, because ultimately that is the biggest problem with all these adaptations and reboots.

Considering this show is doing everything it can to invalidate The Silmarillion, pretty much the defacto book that covers events that this show is supposed to be based on, it would probably be a good idea that they abide by it as a guideline. As in, no Hobbits (because they don't exist at this time period so it's all nostalgia bait). And based on what little we've seen, Galadrials character is getting butchered which is a huge red flag for other characters being poorly written too.

[OwenBurton]

I enjoyed The Hobbit more than The Lord of the Rings. I found the characters and story more interesting in The Hobbit, and I much preferred younger Bilbo to Frodo. Sam was the real hero... Frodo was an annoying bitch.

I found the two of them complemented each other, in a kind of bromance kind of way. Most of us might not want to admit it, but we are probably closer to Frodo in character than to Sam. Heroism in real life does not always match of fantasy realms, sadly enough.

I actually liked both the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchise very much, their director was indeed an artistic and creative genius. I am not sure about this new series though, but perhaps it might be based on the War in the North, like that video game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRkzBA_nKxQ

[Shadowferal]

I didn't hate the "Hobbit." I thought the character of "Tauriel" a welcome addition. However I didn't like at all the romantic love angle between dwarf and elf. That was ridiculous.

[Shadowferal]

I dunno...at this point I wouldn't be surprised if they try to redo a version of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but make it more feminist since it's sooo 20yrs ago. (Yes, this is a dig at WoT show)

[Nurasu]

Maybe people should stop blaming women and POC for shitty writing. The two are very different things and really have fuck all to do with each other. Unless you think white male characters are the only ones that can be written well… in which case, see my other comment you replied to.

Side note: I have never watched a bad show/movie just because of diversity. I’ve never forced myself to continue watching something bad because of diversity. I simply watch what I enjoy. Usually that means not judging a show based on how many women and POC are in it, but whether or not the show itself is entertaining. There’s plenty of things to take issue with in the pictures. Dark skinned actors isn’t one of them.

Let's also keep in mind the ratio so far - 2 out of 20-something main characters are POC. I think actual fans will do what many Tolkien scholars are doing and try to find creative/fun ways to blend additions into the existing story. The first screening doesn't need to be a KKK rally to be recognizable as part of the Tolkien universe.

[Rennadrel]

Maybe people should stop blaming women and POC for shitty writing. The two are very different things and really have fuck all to do with each other. Unless you think white male characters are the only ones that can be written well… in which case, see my other comment you replied to.

Side note: I have never watched a bad show/movie just because of diversity. I’ve never forced myself to continue watching something bad because of diversity. I simply watch what I enjoy. Usually that means not judging a show based on how many women and POC are in it, but whether or not the show itself is entertaining. There’s plenty of things to take issue with in the pictures. Dark skinned actors isn’t one of them.

No one is blaming them, and they never have. I'm not the one here calling people 'ists' and 'phobes' for not liking things that are so blatantly bad for writing structure like a couple other users here are. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it ad nauseum, shows and films can be diverse and still great entertainment, but the problem lies entirely in the complete lack of creativity coming from people who claim to be "woke" that keep failing upwards but have zero creativity. They don't understand the most important aspects of character writing are that characters have strengths, weaknesses and major differences. Women generally aren't strong, they can be frail and break easily, men can be broken just as easily under the right conditions, but nuance always matters. It's why I would rather see this stuff fail than let it be bastardized.

[Nurasu]

They don't understand the most important aspects of character writing are that characters have strengths, weaknesses and major differences. Women generally aren't strong, they can be frail and break easily, men can be broken just as easily under the right conditions, but nuance always matters. It's why I would rather see this stuff fail than let it be bastardized.

What are you basing this off of so far? We don't really know anything about the characters yet, except what Tolkien himself established - Elven women were not frail in the Silmarillion, as an example.

[Dellis0991]

As a black man I wish they could've added a story based on the people Far Harad and shed some light on the their rebellion against Sauron, hell they could've given a name to the Haradrim that lead the rebellion and the 2 Blue wizards. Whoever wrote script and cast the roles ignored a gold mine of possible stories that could've been a hit. But I'll be fair and reserve my judgement until after I see a few episodes.

[Syegfryed]

I didn't hate the "Hobbit." I thought the character of "Tauriel" a welcome addition. However I didn't like at all the romantic love angle between dwarf and elf. That was ridiculous.

yeah, that was awful, especially knowing he was going to die anyway. Tauriel by its own was fine.

The hobbit failed to me because it tried to be the second lord of the rings, the book was so small but they tried to build an entire epic trilogy, is just didn't had the same felling, especially with some nonsenses additions like legolas for fanservice and all the black arrow giant ballista bs

Feels like the show is going the same route

[Frontenac]

Well, this woke shit is going to destroy another fantasy icon. If you have read LotR closely, you would notice that Frodo and Sam talked about rumors, that somewhere in the south there are oliphants, and 'men with skin dark as coal'. This means that in the region where Frodo and Sam lived and where they wandered (pretty damn the whole north of Middle-Earth), there was NO black-skinned men (even less elves), and they were quite a wonder for white-skinned inhabitants of realms of Gondor, Arnor, Shire, elven kingdom etc etc.
But somehow in the Second Age there are appeared dark-skinned elves and dwarfves, and no one gives a fuck. And in the Third Age there are suddenly no black men again (I am talking about 2001-2003 Jackson movies).

Thanks god that acclaimed movie trilogy was released in early 2000s, when there was none of this woke shit that ruins movies today.

Frodo and Sam never left the Shire before their quest to Mordor. Most Hobbits never left the Shire at all. Which is a tiny part of Eriador, far from being "pretty damn the whole north of Middle Earth". Eriador was almost deserted at the end of the Third Age. Dwarves and Men were a rare sight, and Elves even more rare. And it was all about 4 or 5 thousand years after Amazon's show. Things change. Also, I doubt this show will limit itself to Eriador. The article speaks about the south of Middle-Earth.

[Grimbold21]

Psst, here's a tip. Whenever you or anyone else are labelled a bigot because you negatively highlight the D&I element of a show, or refuse to engage with such content, realize that they're equally - if not more - bigotted.

Understand that they're the ones highlighting the immutable traits of an individual as the primary - or one of the - reasons for why that individual has acquired what they have. Understand that, ironically, they're far more responsible not only for building the identity of those individuals around those immutable trains, but also the fact that those identities continue to revolve around what others think of them.

And finally, the cherry on top, remember how some of these people think that society was/is built to the benefit of one group, and usually to the (in)direct detriment of other groups?
Tell me again how it's not bigotted to unknowingly state that minorities only get opportunities by the grace of the majority.

Folks, it's all performative stupidity in an attempt to gain some form of moral superiority. We are all very convinient in what we use. One moment we call attention to nuances, and in another we deal in absolutes.

So... just throw their absolutes back in their face.

[kamuimac]

another woke fiasco .

the only plus side is how many milions of $$ bezos will loose because of it

[Tiwack]

This is going to be a bigger fucking trainwreck than what they did to Wheel of Time, isn't it?

Artistic license to shit on the source material isn't called artistic freedom for nothing on this shit that should've entered public domain ages ago.

[Sialina]

Need a lot of melanin to live underground or in the deep dark forest do you? This is so stupid, it's like people don't understand why skin has the color it does. Why not include the men of the east if you want colored people? It's just not realistic to have different ethnic groups living together in medieval fantasy outside of port cities. go back 200 years before modern transport, and most people only ever saw the place surrounding their own village in the past.

I still meet other Chinese all the time that never saw a foreigner in real life, and 200 years ago it was just too dangerous and time consuming to move around.

I'm an asian woman by the way, so no need to come at me with the white supremacy crap.

[BigToast]

another woke fiasco .

the only plus side is how many milions of $$ bezos will loose because of it

Another shit mmo-champ poster whining about something he knows nothing about, but he sure doesn't like it!

[Xath]

It’s rather par for the course, id actually be surprised if a fantasy adaptation didn’t have racist jumping out of the wood works at this point.

I assume you are very open to recasting Shaft as Michael Cera right? It's really not that hard to follow an author's original work. If the author gives the okay for changes it's different than changing the work of a dead person ie Wheel of Time.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I assume you are very open to recasting Shaft as Michael Cera right? It's really not that hard to follow an author's original work. If the author gives the okay for changes it's different than changing the work of a dead person ie Wheel of Time.

The only thing I know about shaft is fresh prince of bel air references so I can’t say I can comment on that.

But as a basic rule as long as the character’s story isn’t tied to there race (human races in fantasy cases) I am totally fine with them casting any one they think will act well in the role no matter there race.

If shaft fall into that then sure go for it.

[Nerovar]

COMPRESSING THE TIMELINE — While speaking with Vanity Fair about The Rings of Power, showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne confirmed that the series will significantly compress the timeline of the Second Age of Middle-earth, the era in which the show primarily takes place. That means events like the fall of Númenor and the forging of the Rings of Power won’t be separated by thousands of years like they are in Tolkien’s books. Instead, they’ll all be developing and playing out at the same time.

Even if you don't care about the horrible casting choices, this should be enough to make everyone who is somewhat invested in Tolkien's work highly skeptical of the show.

Need a lot of melanin to live underground or in the deep dark forest do you? This is so stupid, it's like people don't understand why skin has the color it does. Why not include the men of the east if you want colored people? It's just not realistic to have different ethnic groups living together in medieval fantasy outside of port cities. go back 200 years before modern transport, and most people only ever saw the place surrounding their own village in the past.

I still meet other Chinese all the time that never saw a foreigner in real life, and 200 years ago it was just too dangerous and time consuming to move around.

I'm an asian woman by the way, so no need to come at me with the white supremacy crap.

But the existence of dragons means all rules are suspended.